Linda Hatch, FNP

Family Nurse Practitioner Linda Hatch grew up in a family of volunteers and carries on the tradition into the present day.

She’s been part of the National Ski Patrol for 50 years, inspired by her father who was also a member of the ski patrol. She started volunteering with her father in the Berkshires of Massachusetts when she was 15 years old. She’s been part of the ski patrol at Mt. Bachelor since 1996.

“We’re opening up the mountain, making the mountain safe, responding to any incidences that happen or accidents — put them in the sled. And I still lug them down in a sled,” she told the Source. It’s a passion of hers, to say the least.

“I was up there when I was nine months pregnant, doing it. And back when I had kids, my husband would say, get rid of this job… I said, ‘No — get rid of my paid job. I’d rather do this.’”

Her paid job has been as a family nurse practitioner. Hatch played a key role in starting the Prineville Health Center for Mosaic Community Health back in 2002. It’s a nonprofit community health center offering integrated health services including medical, dental, behavioral, nutrition and medication. She was in private practice at the time but decided to help write a grant to begin the process of opening the clinic.

“It started in this little, little office in Prineville with me and Megan Haase, who is our CEO now, and was the first nurse practitioner that I hired.” Hatch fondly reminisces about the clinic growing from three exam rooms to the size it is now, with more than two dozen providers serving patients.

“I just wanted to provide medical care. I wanted to do what I did best and so I did what I did best,” she says with a big smile. But after 23 years, Hatch is retiring on Oct. 15.

“It’s a little sad because my patients know I’m leaving. I’ve had some of them for, like, 30 years, because I’ve been practicing since 1993… I’ve known my families. I knew them since they were kids. I had a gal come in the other day, and I said I saw her since she was this big,” Hatch said, putting her hand at the height of her hip. “She’s, like, 36. She didn’t really remember but I’ve seen them over the years… I get people that come in and say, ‘What am I gonna do? I haven’t had anyone else.’ They’re in tears.”

Hatch will return as needed to fill in when other FNPs are sick or on leave, as well as put in time with the ski patrol. But in-between doing that, she’s taking the next year to travel around the world. Her first adventure: taking her RV to Mexico to windsurf.

In spite of all that she’s done, when asked about her most rewarding memory, it was the two years she spent with the Peace Corps in Guatemala in 1986. She was inspired by her aunt who volunteered in the ‘60s on the S.S. HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship.

In Guatemala, Hatch went into communities to identify needs and help educate people about nutrition and vaccinations — even teaching people how to become lay midwives.

“I was probably going above what an RN in the U.S. could do. For medical care, I prescribed drugs. I did all that stuff because there was no one else there. I could work at a higher level than when I came back to the States,” Hatch says.

Returning to Oregon, Hatch treated inmates in a number of jails around the state, including Crook County. She also earned a master’s through Oregon Health & Science University, and eventually moved to Prineville after meeting her husband. Now, after decades of helping others, Hatch will finally take time for herself.

This article appears in the Source October 2, 2025.